Researchers Create Temporal Pockets In Time Through Which Data Can Pass & Leave No Trace

Data security and privacy continues to be a worry in an increasingly interconnected world. But what if you could protect your data by convincing interceptors that it did not exist at all? "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist", words immortalized by Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects. With no data, there is no motivation for listening to a communication line. Researchers have created just the thing you need for making that possible. The so-called Temporal Cloak acts as a pocket in time through which a data can pass without leaving any trace. In fact, the record of the event is completely concealed from history. The concept of temporal cloak is loosely based on the principles of bending of light around an object. Only in this case, the light waves are pulled apart and compressed to generate the time pockets.


The breakthrough comes in the form of Talbot Effect. It is a near-field diffraction effect that results in duplication of the image of the grating at regular distances away from the grating plane. The tricky modification is to switch the effect's dimension from space to time, to create the desired temporal effect.

A laser is passed through a waveguide with an oscillating voltage. The inconsistent voltage varies the speed at which light travels through the waveguide, resulting in an interference pattern over time. As the frequencies are known, we can predict the peaks and troughs. The trough is where the light intensity is lowest and is the location of the time pockets. The time holes last for 36 picoseconds, which is close to eternity in laser time world. The researchers have been successful in their efforts to hide a data rate of 12.7 gigabits per second in an optical cable, almost half the total bandwidth.

Future applications include using troughs to exchange secret messages over line and improve the fidelity of data streams by reinforcing the peaks. And all this is possible in a standard fiber optic cable. Imagine!

Source: Researchers create temporal cloak that can erase digital data from history | ExtremeTech